Alley's Third Birthday weekend

Alley had 3 birthdays for turning three years old. We are not planning to do that for every birthday year. But she first had a birthday party at preschool - she had star cupcakes and handed out star sunglasses on Friday Feb 20th. (I felt I had to do some party favors - after I kind-of forgot about Valentine's day the week before at preschool - Was it really the kids giving the Valentine's or the parents??? - I digress)

Then she had a sledding party on Sat. Feb 21st. Fortuantely the weather cooperated - after having little snow after a recent warm up - we got a couple inches of nice powder to sled on. This is a hill at Aquila park - next to our house.

Quite a few of our friend's joined us for sledding. Here is AJ and Bryant. Alley only went down a few times then got cold - Cody Jenkins, Susie and Katie Sherman were the bravest sledders.

Then we all came back to our house and had a bite to eat, cupcakes, and then a pinate. I was happy to learn recently - that you no longer need a bat for a pinata - as there is pull string pinatas. I didn't think it was a good idea to have three year old, blind folded with a bat - especially near a window.

You can see quite a few of her friends gathered around - Kevin finally pulled the right string and Dum-Dum suckers, rings, stickers, and tattoos poured out.

Alley was exhausted by the end of the day. Claire helped her cover up with pillows and crash on the loveseat.

I am not so sure about this picture. This is the morning of her birthday Sun Feb 22nd. I don't like the look in her eyes or her lifting up her shirt. Her birthday is a little too close to Mardi Gras for my comfort.

Alley thought the Good and Plenty candy from her uncle Gregg were a hit - along with Claire. She also received numerous temporary tattoos - which she loves - hopefully she'll get that out of her system before she is old enough for real tattoos. She got several cute skirts, dresses, books, necklaces, My Little Ponies, Hello Kitty back back, more people and items for her dollhouse, and a princess DVD.

It was wonderful having all her grandparents here. Grandpa Alley flew in from Phoenix. Helen and Charlie stayed with us for the weekend and they were very helpful with the parties. Grandma Erlys and Grandpa Virgil also came from Ortonville for the festivities.

Mom and Dad got her the Radio Flyer tricycle with a bell to ring and streamers on the handle bars.

Finally more cake - with a Tinkerbell theme.

I am no Martha Stewart and never will be.

Alley's new tricycle

Alley got a new tricycle for her birthday. The sound effects for this
picture are " brt brr five more minutes dad brt brt"

Valentines day

Alley is showing off the tigger and kangaroo that she got from grandpa
alley for valentines day. She got candy,fruit snacks, and homemade
card from grandma Erlys. The weekend before we were at Helen and
Charlies and she got a whole bag of little presents.
What a great holiday! On top of it, she got lots heart shaped cookies.

Alley at McDonalds

Alley is"helping" Claire down the slide.

Up and coming model?

Alley is practicing her poses for her upcoming photo shoot displaying the latest winter wear for preschoolers.

But seriously - she just seems to love playing in the snow. Her birthday is coming up and we are planning a sledding party with all her friends.

Alley has been quite the chatter box lately - it is kind-of cute what she says and can be very annoying. Especially when you get her in the car - she seems to beleive that is license for her to jabber nonstop about everything she sees. She is typical in that she asks "why?" a lot. But she also seems to ask "what kind?" a lot too. What kind can often be hard to answer - like in a recent trip to St Paul to the children's museum - I told her we were in a new city named St Paul - she asked "what kind of St Paul?" - how do you answer that? She also says bizarre things like - "I don't like to eat food." Then to be silly, I asked her if she wanted to eat puppy dogs instead. Instead of saying no that is silly - she said "What kind of puppy dogs?". A lot of questions seem to be around eating - like today "Do foxes eat people?" - Where did that come from???